First Round: St. Louis - Toshiaki Kawada vs. Lex Luger

[klunderbunker]

This is a first round matchup in the St. Louis Subregion. The ring and arena are universal throughout the first round and the organization is not a factor. There is a 20 minute time limit. Vote using any criteria you like. Most votes in the poll at the end of the time period wins. In the case of a tie we will go off of the number of written votes. In the case of a second tie, both are eliminated.

Location: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri.

Toshiaki Kawada

Vs.

Lex Luger

Voting is open for 4 days.

 

[PsychoBlack]

my vote goes o kawada as i hate it when terrible wrestlers like luger go over legendary in ring performers like kawada who has 17 5 star matches while lugers most memorable match was probably war games with 7 other men. luger was also apart of the towers of doom match lol. vote goes to kawada

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

Kawada is an extremely underrated wrestler from Japan. He wrestled in the same era as Kobashi, Misawa, Hansen, Brody, Gordy, and many others and held his own with all of them. And all of those wrestlers are 100 times the wrestler Lex Luger is, who I still say is the most overrated pro wrestler to ever live. Sure he pumped up crowds and drew money during his time, but in-ring skill wise, he was awful. And to be trained by Hiro Matsuda and still be that bad says a lot about Luger's work ethic and lack of respect for the business.

Kawada would out think Luger and win this pretty easily.

Vote Kawada.

 

[GenMe]

Kawada was more of a wrestler than what Luger ever was. Kawada had a lot of legendary matches all over Japan. Luger was a tough son of a gun, but he was boring to watch. Kawada will out wrestler Lex Luger and with out breaking a sweat Kawada win get the win in this match.

Vote Toshiaki Kawada.

 

[X]

Fucking awesome, glad to see Kawada getting some support here as I was truly afraid that he might be one guy that alot of people glossed over, didn't know who he was, or voted against simply because Luger had moderate success in the United States. Glad to see that's not the case and that Kawada is currently winning against Lex Luger, one of the biggest cases of someone with a ton of potential absolutely colossally failing to meet that potential and basically ruining themselves as Luger did with drug abuse and other issues. When Luger first stepped on the scene in the 80s the guy was fucking awesome, huge, great look, could wrestle, and was damn good on a microphone as well. I don't know what happened but man, once the 90s came along he turned to absolute shit and really just became a joke of his former self. Shame too because he really had some great matches during his first run in WCW.

Kawada, however, is infinitely superior to Luger in more than one regards, the most obvious being workrate. Might as well be comparing Chris Benoit to Batista, pretty much the same kind of situation we've got here. Kawada wins this and he wins it pretty easily about ten minutes into the match-up. Luger in his toughest, roughest prime couldn't match even half of the intensity or in-ring energy of a young Toshiaki Kawada. This guy went 60+ minutes routinely in the most brutal, stiff fucking contests you could imagine during his mid-90s prime. Like, I literally think he might murder Lex Luger, who made a career wrestling lazy-as-fuck wrestlers like 1997 Hulk Hogan. Luger would shit himself upon seeing the punishment Kawada could and would dish out.

Kawada for the win here people.

 

[jmt225]

I'm not a Lex Luger hater like many; I actually really like the guy. Also, Kawada is probably my least favorite big-named Japanese wrestler of all time. I think he was an asshole and a half. Regardless, however, Kawada still deserves to go over here.

The fact of the matter is, even working the toughest style there is to work in this business, Kawada has had more longevity than any of the other big names from his era in Japan, and also longer than many of the guys here in the states, including Lex Luger. Plus, Luger's greatest matches cannot come close to matching Kawada's best. No chance.

I've typed much more on Kawada, but since this is becoming a run away for him, I'm going to save it for another round, or if the match becomes closer.

In the meantime, I'll just reiterate that I do like Luger, and I do think he was a good wrestler. When I was a kid, he was one of my absolute favorites and I loved his work in WCW and the WWF. However, as a grown adult, that work does not match up against Kawada's in the least bit.

 

[Tastycles]

In all honesty, Luger wasn't that good. They ditched the only character of his that I liked and turned him into a generic patriot. He couldn't properly get past a big "Japanese" star in Yokozuna, and he has been pretty dominant in Japan, winning a shitload of Triple Crowns. Considering he was consistently pushed for about 20 years, Luger only has two world titles to his name, once when Flair had gone from WCW, and once when he held the title for less than a week, which isn't much to show for, especially when your opponent has won five (six if you count Zero1) in a market where it is far harder to do so. Kawada wins.